Can you hear sonic boom inside Concorde?

As a former Concorde pilot puts it, You don't actually hear anything on board. All we see is the pressure wave moving down the airplane – it indicates the instruments. And that's what we see around Mach 1. But we don't hear the sonic boom or anything like that.



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If you're WONDERing about how pilots handle sonic booms, they actually don't hear them. They can see the pressure waves around the plane, but people on board the airplane can't hear the sonic boom. Like the wake of a ship, the boom carpet unrolls behind the airplane.

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Why don't we ever hear sonic booms any more? Noise abatement regulations halted supersonic flight (by civil aircraft) over U.S. land. The Concorde could still take off and land here because it broke the sound barrier over the ocean, but it's no longer in service.

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Air France Flight 4590 was the Concord's only fatal accident in its 31-year history (no other commercial aircraft has matched that record). At the time, with a record of zero accidents per km traveled before the accident, the Concorde qualified as the safest airliner in the world.

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Concorde is sadly no longer flying, but it is still possible to visit some of the remaining 18 airframes, there are others not open to the public but you can still see them.

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Such speed didn't come cheap, though: A transatlantic flight required the high-maintenance aircraft to gulp jet fuel at the rate of one ton per seat, and the average round-trip price was $12,000.

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Fifty years ago, the federal government banned all civilian supersonic flights over land. The rule prohibits non-military aircraft from flying faster than sound so their resulting sonic booms won't startle the public below or concern them about potential property damage.

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Concorde used the most powerful pure jet engines flying commercially. The Aircraft's four engines took advantage of what is known as 'reheat' technology, adding fuel to the final stage of the engine, which produced the extra power required for take-off and the transition to supersonic flight.

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Concorde was restricted to only go supersonic over the ocean because it sent a shockwave into the air strong enough to shatter glass if it went over densely populated areas. Cities issued numerous noise complaints whenever Concorde flew overhead, causing huge headaches for the airlines and manufacturers.

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